The Impressive Woman Behind Historic Easton Mansion Featured in ‘Knives Out’

During the holidays, families were gathered in the living room to watch the latest whodunnit murder story, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, on Netflix. It is an entertaining blend of comedy and mystery, but I felt it didn’t compare to the original Knives Out film that came out in 2019.

It’s one of those movies I frequently return to when I want to get lost in a good story, and during my latest viewing, I couldn’t help but be in awe of the mansion where the movie takes place.

Located less than an hour away from the SouthCoast sits the centerpiece of Borderland State Park in Easton: The Ames Mansion.

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The Room That Was the Star of the Show

The filming of Knives Out took place in a couple of locations, but Ames Mansion was certainly the star of the show.

Knives Out location manager Charlie Harrington shared with The Boston Globe that the crews spent most of their time in the library of the Ames Mansion, where members of the Thrombey family are interrogated by Detective Blanc (Daniel Craig) as they sit in a daunting chair made up of knives.

“The movie cuts in and out of that room for pretty much the whole film,” he said.

The Woman Behind the Ames Mansion

Blanche Ames was an incredibly impressive woman. She was a multi-talented inventor, the co-founder of the Birth Control League of Massachusetts and the treasurer of the League of Women Voters for three years.

The National Parks Service said, "She also gained notoriety for her political cartoons depicting the struggle for women's suffrage."

And when she was dissatisfied with the architect in charge of building her stone mansion in 1910, she took over the operation.

"Blanche took over the design and construction management of the mansion and hired the Concrete Engineering Company to draw plans according to her specifications," National Parks Service said.

Blanche managed to design a beautiful, three-story-, 30-room stone mansion spanning 1,843 acres that has been on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Borderland Historic District since 1997. It's an impressive accomplishment for an impressive woman.

Now, her creation is the focal point of tours and movies. I'm a big fan of the film, but now, I'm an even bigger fan of the mansion's creator.